What else is Rose supposed to say when he's regularly asked these questions?

"This whole playing basketball thing is weird. Difficult, too. I'm in a lot of pain. I probably shouldn't be playing for Team USA."

Yeah, no.

There is only confidence for Rose. He was sure of himself last summer while working his way back from an unrelated ACL injury, and he has faith in himself now as he tries to put this string of season-ending, reputation-rankling setbacks behind him.

These answers, this return is the same story as before in so many ways. And yet, like CBS Sports' Ken Berger underscores, it's also different:

In some ways, the theme is the same as it was in 2013, when he began the long journey back from ACL surgery. The physical work behind him, Rose needs simply to play and compete -- to rediscover his niche and prove to himself and to anyone doubting him that his MVP talent is still there.

There is one key difference, and Rose knows he wouldn't have the perspective to detect it if he hadn't gone through all of this before.

That difference is Rose's patience, his maturity. He doesn't appear to have this nagging desire to prove people wrong and regain his MVP form right away. He knows this is a process—one that's haunted by mystery and all the questions he doesn't and can't yet have answers for.

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All Rose can do is play.

"Of course, I wanted to prove everybody wrong last year," Rose said, via Berger. "I just wanted it too, too bad. And this time around, I just know that I've got to let the game come to me; go out there and just play."

Playing on is all Rose can do. He can't worry about instantly silencing and appeasing his critics this time around. Nor can he will his 2010-11 self back into existence without a rust-rupturing grace period.

How important is it that Rose himself seems to understand this, on a scale of one to 10?